The Unmade Podcast - 177: The Problem with American Toilets

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

Tim and Brady discuss more annoying words, more Wesleys come out of the woodwork, a swimming controversy, guitars, a famous koala, and the ways of America (including toilet design).And then retire to this week’s Request Room - https://www.patreon.com/posts/153921409Who won prizes this week? Find out here at the Marble Races - https://www.patreon.com/posts/leap-of-faith-on-153643954Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/unmadeFMJoin the discussion of this episode on our subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/Unmade_Podcast/Catch the podcast on YouTube where we often include accompanying videos and pictures - https://youtu.be/JLVNrcaKx7EUSEFUL LINKSPictures associated with this episode - https://www.unmade.fm/episode-177-pictures
John Wesley - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_WesleyWesTley (note the T - Brady’s bad) - https://princessbride.fandom.com/wiki/Westley_(book) 
The swimming photo for patrons (Brady and Tim shirtless in the pool - just barely safe for work) - https://www.patreon.com/posts/153919646Mirboo North - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirboo_NorthSam the Koala - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_(koala)Pictures of Spoon of the Week - https://www.unmade.fm/spoon-of-the-weekCatch the bonus Request Room episode - https://www.patreon.com/posts/153921409Patrons can get the Request Room into their normal podcast feeds after joining.

What is the most amazing thing that happened to you today? I've literally just woken up and I've come and had a shower. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. And I've had marmalade on toast, cup of tea. Come in here now, I've got a coffee.

I rode in the dark, in the early morning dark. And I tell you one thing, how many runners were running in front of the bike or across the road that I was, it was like running through pigeons. You know, when you go through a park and there's pigeons. everywhere. It was like runners everywhere in the dark, sprawling and jumping out of the way. Were you on a bicycle or on your scooter? No, on my scooter, my Vespa, yeah. They're just crossing the road and I go, whoa, hello. And then every now and then there's a light in their hand, you know, because they're carrying a phone, they're listening to music. But often they just, it's just like, oh gosh, there's someone. Oh gosh, there's someone else. And I trust that they can see

me because I've got a big light on and stuff. But yeah, that was real noticeable this morning. Interesting. Well, not massively interesting. but you did the best you could. Well, I know. It's not. The day is just beginning. Yeah. But I was impressed with all of them.

I was like, oh, wow, there's another one. Oh, God on you. Gosh, it's still dark. Off you go. Not for me. Not for me, early mornings. No, no. What's the most exciting thing that's happened to you?

You've had a full day, so the pressure's on you a lot more. I went to the tip, which is always a very exciting time for me, as you know. I love a visit to the tip. Yeah. And there's a new system there where you have to, like, book your slot. You can't just turn up now. You've got to like go onto a website and say I'm going to be there at 10, 15, which I think has taken a lot of the sort of serendipity and whimsy out of my tip visits. But, you know, but it also means it's less busy and it's easier to get a good parking space.

So, you know, six or one, half a dozen of the other. So describe a tip that you're talking about. Is this like a waste, a very organized clean waste disposal center, is it? Yes, it's not like a big landfill like maybe you're thinking of in Australia where they just like dig a massive hole and everyone throws things in it. It's like a sort of a concrete facility with big metal bins and you throw things in the appropriate bin, the cardboard bin, the trash bin, the wood bin, the electrical items bin, the failed podcaster bin, all those sort of ones. Oh, okay.

Yeah, that's that place, right. Does that mean there's no sort of scrounging around to take home some keepsakes and? No, no. I think the people who work there maybe do a little bit of that, but no, there's none of that. Why do you love the tip so much then? if you can't find cool secondhand stuff to take home. I don't know. It feels like a real like manly caveman job to me.

Like it's me doing my thing for the house, taking away all the waste. And I like the sort of the violence of hurling things into bins and smashing things. And like, you know, the crashing noise of heavy things landing on other heavy things. It just feels like a real rugged place. Gets my testosterone flowing. Wow. Wow. That's good.

It's good you have one chance in your life to get that flowing. Yeah. Yeah. Then I come home and do marble races. Do you ever imagine yourself jumping down into the bin with a baseball bat and just going to work on the old TVs? There is a certain kinship too with like the people who work there, these sort of salt of the earth, rugged people. And I just nod at them and they know I know what to do. They don't need to tell me what to do or where things go.

They know I know. Today actually it was really good because I had a bunch of plastic in a cardboard box and you put plastic in one bin and cardboard box in the other. So I was carrying the cardboard box full of plastic to the plastic bin. And the guy that worked there saw me and said, mate, cardboard goes over there and pointed to the cardboard bin. I just tipped the cardboard box towards him and showed him it was full of plastic and just nodded and said, yeah, I'm getting rid of this plastic first.

And he just nodded back like, this guy knows, this guy knows. I shouldn't have even said anything. He's got game. He's got tip game. Does he wave you through? Does he sort of call out, you know, this one's straight through or Brady's here? You know, is it like a sort of a tribal thing or just a week? No, that stuff, that kind of, that would be too showy and flamboyant.

It's just, a lot goes unsaid. Right. It's more unsaid. Is it more unsaid, like, and in your mind than in his mind perhaps? Well, maybe. You don't know that he's not at home doing a podcast with his tipmates about me. tip mates. What goes unsaid between me and that guy in the grey hoodie?

Do they call them tips over there, or is that your Australianism you're imposing on a waste disposal place or something? No, we would call it the tip and doing a tip run. They're actually recycling centres according to the council, but it's called going to the tip. Yeah, yeah. That's a bit of, that's marketing, isn't it really? Yeah. Of course, there is some recycling that goes on, of course.

Oh, it's all recycling. There's no tipping, but it's still called the tip. Yeah, right. Yeah. What's the Americanism? The dump? Do they... Yeah, well, that's what I would have called it in Australia in Adelaide, the dump. Oh, okay.

No, I called it the tip. Yeah, the Taralgan Tip was pretty legendary. And we used to... While Dad was unloading the trailer, you know, with all our stuff, I'd just go scavenging around everywhere. You get totally lost there, and you just find all sorts of things. And it's horrific now to think about all the, you know, sort of crap that I was amongst and everything. What's the best thing you ever found at the Tarragon Tip?

The one, the great, the big find, the amazing find was that Dad was looking to pave with bricks, like our outdoor sort of barbecue area, our patio out the back and all the rest of it. And he went to the tip and found like hundreds and hundreds of bricks, like perfectly good red bricks that were thrown out and stacked them all up on the trailer and brought them all home. And when we got home, it was a few days later talking with our neighbor. we realized they were actually our neighbours' bricks. He had ripped up all his patio, taken it all to the tip,

and then Dad had found it and serendipitously, as you say, brought it back and paved it out the back of our house. And we could have just taken it next door. So that was pretty, yeah, never stopped talking about that. I thought you're going to say we later found out that come from the Terego Nuclear Power Plant. That's right. They were neutron regulators.

They were highly radioactive. That's right. That's right. They did glow. They were very warm. So that was a blessing in winter. I have some parish notices. Your idea in the last podcast was like words you don't like, which turns out, I know you took

it from quite low on your ideas list because you've had some tech problems with your ideas list. Turns out you had done that idea before back in an earlier episode. Right. Had I? I need to cross them. off. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I cross mine off, yeah. But anyway, it was still good fun. And we've heard, and we've had

some more contributions. Bullitt W said that they don't like the word smorgasbord. Hmm, yeah. That is, that is, I'm on board with that. I don't like that word. It does feel like it's kind of two words that have been jammed together that don't quite fit somehow or that we're pronouncing it wrong. Smorgasborg. Isn't it like Swedish or something? It's a foreign word, but anyway, I don't know where it's from, but I don't like... It sounds German to me. Like, you know, you know how the Germans are always attaching, you know, fragments of other words together to make whole new word sentences, really.

Let's look it up. Smorgasbord. Smorgasbord. So the board's going to be like something like a bay marie. The smorg is like lots of options. I don't think the board in smorgasbord is referring to a board as such. Oh, no, it is. It turns out it's Swedish.

Yeah. And the board does mean table. And smorgas comes from slices of bread and butter. Right. So smorgasbord is a slice of bread and butter on a table. That's the origin. Yeah. Anyway, it is a word that is not liked by Bullet W.

And Bruce got in touch and said that his least favorite expression is my bad. When you say, hey, hey, my bad. He says, it's like trying to make light of a mistake one has made. to just say, I'm sorry or some other appropriate apology. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm devastatingly sorry. Yeah, my bad.

I mean, it's a quick way of taking ownership of a fault, but maybe it's a bit too quick for Bruce, you know? Like you've got to sit in your guilt for a while, you know? Yeah. I understand where Bruce is coming from, but I think my bad is different from something that requires an apology. I think it's almost like, yeah, it's an acknowledgement that I made the mistake that has caused this issue,

but it's not like we've got to apologize for it. Right. Like, for example, when we were just about to do this podcast, I sent you the link that we would use on an email. And I forgot to put the link in the email. So I just sent you a blank email. I think that is a my bad. But I don't think that requires me to like lay down at your feet and apologize and beg for forgiveness. I think it's enough to say, oh, my bad. Let me resend it. Well, I was going to bring that up because, frankly, I don't think we can go on. I feel like that's the end. It's a straw, but it's a straw that broke the camel's back, as they say. I apologise for my bad on that occasion. All right. Your apology is accepted. You are forgiven.

Now, of course, the absolute talk of the last episode was the name Wesley. How many of the 500,000 Wesleyes have been in touch with us to confirm their Wesleyness? Well, a fair chunk. Just to remind people, I stalked one of our patrons when I went to New York. I looked up, who lived in New York? I found a guy called Wesley, and I met up with him, gave him some cards. And it got us talking about the name Wesley and how we don't have enough Wesley's as Patreon supporters. I think I said we had two or three.

I may have been wrong there. My bad. Oh. I think actually we may have had five. I may have undercounted or used an old list. I'm not sure. But anyway, we had either three or five Wesleyes. And we wanted more.

And we talked about the name Wesley more than perhaps any person has ever spoken about the name Wesley on a podcast. And we spoke about it about a whole bunch more on the request room. And we're going to talk a whole bunch more about it now because we've had a whole bunch of Wesley's get in touch. Oh, that's awesome. How many? How many? Well, let's go one at a time here. First of all, the original Wesley, the one I met in New York, listened to the episode.

Yeah. And said, I've never heard my name so many times in a row. actually I've never met another Wes or Wesley. I wasn't sure if I'd like to, but if the stars align, I'd be happy to someday meet the other one who listens to the Unmade podcast. Of course, the other big talking point is, is it Wes, as an Australian or an English person, would say,

or Wes, when you shorten it. That's going to come up a little bit here too. Owitz-Milly pointed out there was a point during the podcast last episode where Tim said there's a distinctive Wesness that we're going to have to get the essence of. That was just a line you said. And, oh, it's merely pointed out, I couldn't believe my ears when neither of you coined the term Wessence, which is what immediately popped into my mind.

Nice. Wessence. Nice. We missed an opportunity there. Another Wesley, who was already a patron, got in touch and said, as a Wesley who goes by Wes, only my parents call me Wesley, and I've never been called Wes. Occasionally, I'm called Wes. I don't really mind between Wes or Wes.

I live in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, so I get Vess a lot. Oh, right. I don't know anyone else personally called Wesley, however, I did work with a Wesley for a very short time, and it was a strange experience. My daughter, Adelaide, and I will be checking my email next time either of you are in or around Switzerland. So obviously, yeah, another possible stalking opportunity. Another Wesley got in touch with us, and this one said,

I've been listening since episode one, but I have finally signed up as a stakeholder. I'm named after John Wesley. My dad was a minister. I've never heard of Wes being an alternative pronunciation of Wes until today. Look at that. Named after John Wesley, you're the one you mentioned, the theologian. Yeah, there'd be quite a few. I mean, John Wesley has a, I mean, if you look through American history,

massive, massive, massive influence on the American culture, as Methodism did, because it was like a third of, you know, the colonies came to faith or something. Of course, he had a brother called Charles Wesley, who was the hymn writer, and he wrote hundreds and hundreds of hymns that have kind of entered into folklore, even, you know, beyond just like Christian people, be thou my vision, and, you know, all these different hymns, songs. Yeah. Keep listening, Tim.

Got more coming for you in a minute. This is from Jeremy, whose middle name is Wesley or Wesley. Hi, Brady and Tim, I'm writing to help out on your survey of Wesley's. I've been listening since the beginning, though I have yet to become a stakeholder. Those marble run videos are tempting, though. I'm not a true Wesley, but my dad is. He goes by Wes, pronounced in what is apparently with the American S sound. I've never knowingly heard it said with a Z sound, although honestly, I didn't notice anything different in your pronunciation until you pointed it out.

Wes, Wes. Wes. Final comment, Princess Bride is Wesley. Yes, got that. And Buttercup noticeably pronounces it with the T sound. Though again, I don't think I realized until I first noticed the spelling in the credits. Keep up the good work. Can I say I had a little bit of a follow-up email with Jeremy? We had a bit of a conversation and he now is a stakeholder. I sealed the deal, man. I got him. Got him. Well done. Well good. Yeah. I made the case. I made the case. I told him what he was missing out on, he signed up. What name can we move on to next?

We will get around everyone eventually. We are, stay listening, man. I am well, I am well prepared. Right, right. Next, we have heard from someone named Ruby Wesley, who said, let it be known that I have finally signed up for the patron because my last name is Wesley, smiley face.

Then Ruby says, we trace directly back to John Wesley. My dad is a pastor, his dad before him also. Wow. So we have now got actual Wesley blood lineage in the Patreon. How good is that? The true Wesley's.

I mean, of course, we're not suggesting that John Wesley was the origin Wesley, like the original, from which everyone has been, you know, spurned. But, I think this is kind of, I think having Ruby now, this is like Da Vinci Code, you know, we've got the woman who's Wesley has Wesley blood in her veins. Leslie blood. Wow, that's true. Gosh. She's our holy grail. She is, yes, right. Emma got in touch and said, my oldest son, Kai, has the middle name Wesley. He was born in 2018, and I've been a listener since episode one. So he has grown up listening to what they call the Tim and Brady podcast. And he will always request new episodes in the car, quite possibly your youngest Wesley fan at eight years old last week.

Oh, fantastic. Hello, Kai. Kai Wesley. Love it. Hello, Kai. This one comes from a Wesley in Georgia. Dear Brady and Tim, I've always liked my name

because it is just common enough that most English speakers who recognize it so as not to seem odd or uncommon, but I've only met a few others with it. It's rare, I hear it said, not referring to me. So you can imagine listening to the most recent episode of Unmade

was an unusual experience. I've been a stakeholder for a few months. but I guess it didn't come up in your spreadsheet query. Brady, I did recently receive the honour of being represented by the green marble in the latest marble run. I suffered a devastating loss. I then remarked to a stakeholder friend, who is sadly not called Wesley, that Brady pronounced my name with a Z.

I'm happy that Wesley from New York shares my preference for having my name pronounced like it's spelled with an S. Thanks for many years of hilarious, frivolous and wholesome podcasting, and for now finally acknowledging the greatness that is Wesley. The greatness. P.S. Brady, should you ever find yourself in the Atlanta area, feel free to do a bit of stakeholder stalking and let us know. So, man, this stakeholder stalking, as you referred to it,

I'm kind of become a bit taken with it. Right. Last week I found myself in the city of Leeds in Yorkshire, in England, checked the old stakeholder spreadsheet, found out who was in Leeds. We only had one supporter in Leeds, which I think is terrible for such a major city. But anyway, I dropped him in email. I said, I'm in Leeds. Do you want to meet up?

I'll give you some Spoon of the Week cards. He said yes. We met up at Leeds University. Benji was his name. Benji from Leeds. Top guy. Nice to meet him. Gave him plenty of cards.

We had a good old chat about podcasts and audio and such things. And I now want all the Benjys out there to also sign up as Patreon supporters. Benji. I know a Benji. That's great. Do you? Love it. Absolutely. Another minister down the road. His name is Benji. He's a great guy. Yeah. Podcast listener, possible patron. I think he has listened in from time to time. Yeah, I think he has. Okay. I don't know how regular he is, but he's on it. He knows what it is. He's got a great sense of humor, lovely guy. Hello to Benji. All right. And if you listening are a Benji and not yet a Patreon supporter, this is your time. this is your time. And we want to hear from all the Benjys out there.

Absolutely, absolutely. And if this Benji, and you know who I'm talking to, if it's not signed up, now's the opportunity. You'll never get a bigger call out than this. No, no. You get access to the request room, the marble races, you get to ask questions, you get special exclusive material. Last week, we had a special moon of the week video, which went down very well, apparently, with the Patreon supporters, a bit of a bit of fun, a bit of comedy. Brady had a bit of fun with that one, didn't he? He did, he did.

Well, that's unverified, but anyway, I'll take your word for it. Well, yeah. Benji, you could do a stalker meetup at Burnside with this Benji when you're in Adelaide. We could do a little coffee side visit with Benji at Burnside, yeah. Burnside is Adelaide people call them. Let's get the Benjys. I think we've depleted our Wesley stocks. I think it's time to move on to Benji.

Well, it sounds like you had 500,000. messages there. So that's about everyone then. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. All right. Cool. Tim, I was, I've been going down memory lane lately. Right. I want to bring something up and it's going to, it's going to be sensitive. Your feelings could be hurt or affected. And I want, I want you to know I come from this from a place of love and, um, right. There's no malice. There's no bad intended. Okay. Is this, is this a conversation that's going to end with you saying, look, my bad. Let's move on. it could.

I was looking through our old school year books and I was looking through our final school year book when we were in year 12, the last year of high school and I went to the sports section and sure enough there under the sports section were the results of the swimming carnival and sure enough there was T. Hine, 30 points. A. Wong, our old friend Andy, 20 points came second.

And we've all heard the glorious story of you winning the swimming carnival. You've still got your medal. And we've all heard the story of why you won it, because no one was willing to swim the butterfly except you. So you swim in the girls' race and came last, but still got the points. One of the great Olympic moments, yeah. So anyway, I then got out the yearbook from when we were in year 11, the year before.

And I went to the swimming carnival section, and I looked at the results there. And do you know what I found? What? B. Harron, 28 points. T. Hine. 22 points. Oh. I won it in year 11, and I got no medal.

And they gave medals to every year level. And I want to know what happened to my swimming carnival medal. Do you think they gave it to every year level? Yes, they did it by year level. Wasn't it sort of for the whole of the senior school? It was just the year 12 one got it, like for being the senior champion. The champions of the school. Well, that's what I sort of have built it up to be in my mind.

but I think I wasn't given a swimming carnival medal. I think there's been some kind of oversight. Maybe they were cutting the budget that year in 92. But I was the 92 swimming carnival champion for year 11, and I want my medal. So the yearbook actually says that like the points and the table does it. I didn't know that. Yes. Only the first two.

So you got 30 points and you got 20. But the year before, I got 28 points and you got 22. Yeah, well, obviously, I mean, I significant. significantly improved or that year didn't go in the butterfly with the girls. Yeah. And a couple of people had dropped out of the school by then who were pretty athletic. So it was a little bit of a last man standing. But yeah, right, okay.

So there's a lost medal somewhere. Do you have any memory of being handed a medal at an assembly or going up the front or anything like that? I'm pretty sure I would have kept a swimming champion medal. Like you kept yours. Well, my mum kept mine, but yeah. Oh, right. Oh, you would have thrown it away otherwise, would you? Of course, now it's actually here in my office.

It's a gross hand. It's actually within two feet of Tim. Every day. Yeah, but anyway. There's an arm guard at the door, but sure. More bonus content, though. In that 92 yearbook, not only does it have, you know, the chart telling of my win, my victory. there is a photo of you and I together in the swimming pool at the end of a race.

Like in that recovery moment where you're like hanging on to the like the swimming rope and stuff. I'm going to make that Patreon bonus content. If you want to see a picture of a shirtless Tim and Brady in the pool in 1992 after a race, which clearly I would have won because I got 28 points that year to Tim's 22, I will put that on the Patreon. Was there some sort of doping scandal or some reason why there was a cloud over your nose as to why you weren't using it? Doping scandal. Too many custard darts or something like that and it was like, whoa, hello.

Yeah, Harron came in before Hine. Something dodgy must have happened there. An abnormally high amount of jam, balina were found in my urine tests. Yeah. Wow, that's great. Anyway, check it out, people. But here is the bonus, bonus content. I went to the back of this 92 yearbook, which I'm holding in my hand.

And I never got my yearbook signed at the end of the year. And I went to the back where they have a page for autographs. And it was covered in writing and signatures. And I was like, I don't remember getting my yearbook signed. Do you know what I've got? What? I've got your yearbook. What?

And all of these messages are signed to you. Are you serious? Yes. Why? I'm pretty sure mine's at home. Maybe I've got yours. How's that? You must do.

I've got a whole bunch of messages to you. from all our classmates. Classic. Why have you got that? You're in, like, in England. Yes, I am, man. Yes, I am. Well done.

Somehow I've got your yearbook here. Would you like to hear one of the messages? Yes. Yes. Is there one from, let's start. Is there one from you to me? Yes, but I'm not going to read that one. Is it a bit too gushy?

Tim, you're an amazing swimmer. I can't believe I'm reaching this. Well, yeah, it was the year I won, so yeah, I would have referenced it. But no. Would you like to hear one from Mandy? Yes, go ahead. This is awesome. Are you ready?

Mandy was quite an eloquent poet, so I'd love to hear what she has to say. Yes, something of a wordsmith. Hi, Tim. You've been really terrific to me and Jodie this year. I really appreciate it. I'm really sorry things didn't turn out with Jody. I hope you find someone really soon. Remember, there are plenty of fish in the sea.

Love Mandy. This is bringing up wounds, man. I don't believe it. I know. I wasn't prepared for this. What a terrible year that was. You lost the swimming to me. And you lost Jody.

And it was clearly such a thing that means. He's made it the whole subject of, not of Jody's message, but of her message to me about Joe. Yeah. Just to shove that knife in a bit deeper. Do you think there are more fish in the sea as some kind of reference to the swimming carnival loss? She was too kind to name two of my great failures that year.

So she thought, I'll just allude to one, but I'll mention the other one. Anyway, there you go. Didn't work out with Jody. Never mind. Luckily, you found another fish in the sea. I did, yeah. Yeah, that's right. Ideas for a podcast.

I have an idea. You've done a lot of talking. Would you like me to bring my idea to the fore? Please. I'm not sure you're going to like this idea, but I recently hooked up with a person that had played a significant role in my life, but only a very fleeting role. but I recognised his significance immediately. A friend of my daughter's dad ended up coming to, popping into our church somewhere along the line.

And as I got talking to him, I found out that his former job was when he owned a guitar store called The Rock Shop in Sturt Street in Adelaide. And that was a pretty legendary shop back in the early 90s for guitars and stuff. and I love to go there. And one day I went with my guitar teacher to the rock shop and purchased a guitar, right? Yep.

So it was just amazing. This is the guy that I bought a guitar off. Of course, I can't remember him personally, but I was able to describe for him his shop, right? And what it looked like and how awesome it was is like a 15, 16 year old to go in there and all that. And that I bought my first guitar there, which is an Ibanez Birdland. It was secondhand and I took it home. And I played it and so forth. And so this was a wonderful thing to reminisce.

And he was able to describe my guitar to me better than I was. You know, oh, that would have been a, you know, and I can't even remember the year now. But, you know, he was like, he sold it to me. He actually knows about guitars. Yeah. And it was an awesome moment. Cutting to the end of the story, this is a podcast about the, not the story of guitars, the back story of guitars.

Where star guitars come from, how they got the guitars, what's the story of them, From whom have they been handed down? Every person who owns a guitar loves, the first thing they say is let me tell you how I got this guitar. Now, no one necessarily wants to listen to it, which is the whole point of the podcast, but certainly the guitarist loves to say it. I could go on to a couple of other guitars that I've owned in my life

and the Kul story about how I ended up with them. It's very rarely just, I walked into a shop, I liked it, I bought it, I went home and I played it. There's always other stuff going on. and there's people attached to it and there's a lot of emotional connection to it. So I don't know. Acts stories, guitar stories, the story of my guitar, guitar histories. There's some sort of personal name there that can work.

But my podcast idea is people telling the stories of how their guitar came to them. Yeah. Yeah. Is there some title that you could use with strings in it or something? Yeah. Yeah. All right. It's kind of like guitarists have.

have a, it's like a relationship with the guitar. So there's a little bit, I'm sure other musicians are like this too, but there's something about rock guitarists because they often, guitars can live forever, right? They get handed on. And so the idea that, well, I own this guitar, but it used to belong to Jimmy Hendricks. And before that, it was his brothers. But also just, you know, I had this, this was my brother's guitar and he handed it to me because he bought this new one. And I've been playing it. And look, this scratch here and that scratch there was when I bumped it into the amp coming off stage at, you know, Woodstock and blah, blah, blah. All of that is fascinating for me.

I don't think it would be of interest to you, but I think this is a pretty good podcast idea. I mean, I pride myself on finding pretty much everything interesting. And I do find this a little bit interesting. You have taken it close to the edge of things like I would not find interesting, but I'm still with you. It's obviously not a podcast for me. I thought you might generalise that and it could be people just talking about

like their equipment you know, they're like my camera, so-and-so's guitar, your body, your tool of the trade and what's the story behind it? But you've gone very specific with guitars but that's okay, that's allowed

and if you're going to be specific with one object to guitar is probably a good choice because they're interesting objects they've often got a lot of celebrity associated with them. So that's not a bad choice. The reason I had this idea is because last night I was at a friend's house and there was another friend there too and we were having some lovely old wine and we got talking about guitars. He pulled out a guitar of his and the first thing he does is tells the story of how he got that guitar and why he chose that guitar. And we're both riveted by it, right? And then we moved to the other friend who was saying, well, I was walking down New York City and I wanted to go to the Martin factory but I couldn't get there and so I went to this store and he talked about the specific store in New York. and where it is and I went in and this particular guitarist was in that other room who's a famous

person and I couldn't go in that room. So I went to this room instead and I was looking along and there it was. And I was riveted by that story as well. So you have to, a little bit like use space and moon people. Like you kind of have to be in the zone for it. Yeah, yeah. And two cricketers would do the same talking about their cricket bats and things like that, of course. But as I said, The guitars are probably a good choice because they're such interesting things and, you know, you test, play them and all sorts of stuff. So I think this is a perfectly satisfactory idea, man. Like, almost each episode is like a biography of a specific guitar and the owner of the guitar

is telling that biography. That's right. That's right. How I came to it. Or two people are coming together and telling a story each or something like that. Yeah, yeah, there's two guitar stories. This, I would love this podcast actually. The more I think about, I would really really love it.

Well, man, the only thing stopping you making it is time and your inability to work with podcast technical equipment. But I think you should go for it. Can I tell you? The thing that most inspired me about your story at the start was actually the chap remembering the guitar and telling you more about the guitar than even you remembered. He sounds almost like Olavander from Harry Potter. you know, who runs the wand shop and matches the wands with the people and knows the story of every wand in the shop and this one has the, has the feather in it that comes from this bird and is the cousin of this wand and stuff.

Yeah, yeah. I think there's something in him and people like him, these people that have spent years and years matching people with their instruments. That's a really good idea too. Because guitars have this sort of, they're an elixir kind of thing. They're all different, but only to the person holding it. There's something about the feel of them when you have them. that becomes deeply personal because you just sort of hold it so close to yourself

and you're touching it in a particular way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there can be people who walk in saying, I would like this. And he says, actually, have you tried this? I think you'd like this guitar. If you like that sound and you like that color and all that kind of thing, then have a feel for this. You're right.

I think there's something of the curator in him that might have lots of stories. I think he might just be like a nice documentary or a short film or something, but not necessarily a whole podcast. But the classic thing about guitar shops as well, it's a little bit like some restaurants where you go and then there's, you know, these Italian restaurants where they've got one wall where there's like a photo or Polaroid with the famous people that have come in to eat in their restaurant. Guitar shops often have that as well when it's like, okay, Pete Townsend was in town and he came in and he looked through. Because that's what musicians do when they're on tour. They go find a local guitar shop, you know, and want to have a look at what's there and have a feel of something. So there's the photo.

But there's also the stories of, oh, and he just loved it so much. So he bought it. Like I sold, you know, Pete Townsend, you know, a guitar or Mike McCready, a guitar, you know, when they were in town. And those, again, those are stories that guitar people get really excited about. Yeah. Yeah. All right, man. You can have that idea.

I might not listen to that podcast, but I'm happy for you to go ahead and make it. All right, all right, all right. You don't like it. My good. My good. It could be called heartstrings. Is that what you were thinking about? Heartstrings?

Maybe. Yeah, that's, yeah, I like that. I like that idea. I like that name. That's actually, that's actually a surprisingly good name for you. Well done, man. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes, my good. My great. Now, have you got a spoon of the week? Can I play the spoon of the week jingle? Hit play, man. Spoon. What you got? I can't believe we've not done this spoon before because it is a beautiful spoon.

It's bursting with colour. That colour is green with a little bit of brown. Yes. And it's a round, colourful, poppy, beautiful spoon. And you have to look very close to see from where it came. And I was surprised when I looked how closely to get the words. I was surprised with the words that were there. The words are Merbu North.

Have you ever heard of Merbu North, man? Until about 50 minutes ago, no, when you sent me a picture of the spoon, I have to say this is one of the hardest words I've ever seen on a spoon in terms of being able to read it. I had to really zoom in and seek technological help and do a bit of detective work. But I too found out that it said Merbu North, and I've since read a little bit about it. But I don't want to steal your thunder. No, it's, I literally, I thought it was my eyes, but I had to take a photo. of it to send to you and then I had to enlarge that myself to actually read and I've got the spoon literally in my hand. It's so hidden. It must have been done by those people who do like

paintings on a grain of rice or something. That's how fine it is. That's right. Or maybe you're supposed to let your eyes go blurry or cross-eyed and then it pops out and you in a special... Or maybe you'd need to not be 50 years old and have failing eyes. Yes, yes. I think that might have something to do as well. But look, Murbue North is a small town in country, Victoria. It's not far from Teralgan. It's far enough away that it's like, oh, let's go out for the day with these people or go for a picnic or go for a walk in, you know, the rainforest area. And so that's why you would go to Mubu North. It's a like, this is just beautiful country Victoria, green, lovely, wonderful outpastly and Gatha over towards Churchill.

And it's a, yeah, it's a tiny little country town. It'll have a great bakery. It'll have a post office. It'll have a pub, it'll have a school. It'll have a souvenir spoon. And it has a souvenir spoon. That's exactly right. It's a wonderful sense of sort of pride in their township that they actually said,

we need to get a spoon for our little country town. We need spoons. We need spoons. Jerry Heinriched just a few towns away. There's money to be made here. That's right. We know we'll sell one and indeed they did. And here it is.

It is one of the most beautifully designed spoons, isn't it? It's got a lyrebird on the front. I think that's a liar bird. It has. I did a bit of research, and they do have, like, a famous liar bird walking trail there. So I'm assuming that is a lyrebird from the ornate tail that the bird has on the spoon. Yeah, we used to walk through that area. It's beautiful, and you could hear them. Yeah, lovely.

I always, I don't know much about liar birds. I've told this story before. I think in the context of lyrebirds from your part of the world when you've talked about lyrebirds, because obviously that's a liar bird rich part of Australia. but I have a real sort of cringy, bad reaction to just the name Liarbird to this day, and I will until I die, because my first embarrassing moment involved the Liarbird. Your first embarrassing moment? You know how you have like a few moments in your life, maybe, you know, maybe 10 or so that are really

embarrassing and you're really embarrassed and you feel humiliated and stupid in front of a group of people? And it just sticks with you forever, you know, it just sticks with you years and years later, no matter how big or small. You just remember huge humiliation. And my first one that I can ever remember involved a liar bird. Are you going to tell us about it? I have no memory of you telling the story before.

Well, of course, you don't remember. You remember nothing. But basically, it was in primary school, and I was messing around and not paying attention to what the teacher was doing while she was talking to the students. I think I must have been in year three or four or something. I wasn't paying attention. And then I turned around,

and the teacher was holding up a big huge placard in front of the students, which had a 10 cent piece on it, an Australian 10 cent piece, blown up really big so the whole class could see it. And the 10 cent piece you used to have, I don't know if it still does, a liar bird on it. Yeah, right. And I knew this. I was quite young, and I knew this.

And I thought, oh, here's a chance for me to show off my knowledge to the class. And I just shouted out really enthusiastically, I know what that is. It's a liar bird, like thinking that. I was going to be like, oh man, that guy's amazing. He knew what I was. Yeah. But it turns out I wasn't paying attention.

And the previous three or four minutes, the teacher had just been talking about the Liarbird and all they'd been doing was talking about liebirds. And the teacher just looked at me like I was a complete idiot and said, yes, Brady, we've just been talking about libeards. And the whole class all started laughing at me because I looked so stupid. And like, it doesn't, you know, whatever, you know, I've done plenty of stupid of things than that today. But I just remember the whole class.

class laughed at me and I felt really humiliated and I really remember that feeling to this day. Yeah. And now whenever I see or hear the word liar bird, it's like, I go straight back to that moment, that's straight back to that memory of everyone in the class looking around at me and laughing. Oh, that's horrible. Those moments that create such a massive impression, don't they? Defining. They scar you, man.

If I ever see a liebird in real life, watch out. Right. You could take out all that suppressed anger and right. are you? There will be like a, yeah, that's been bubbling for a lot of years that has. I've had several of those moments too, right? Of course, everyone has. They're horrible.

Yeah. I feel like a significant amount of them like you were standing nearby, like you've been present for. Okay. It's like, I can think of a couple of them and I go, yeah, Brady was right there. And then, you know, like, I'm not saying you. He caused them. Clearly I caused them.

But I just feel like you've been in the audience for them. You know what I mean? Like you've been a witness to them. Yeah. All right. Well, there we go. Spoon of the week. Liarbird.

Murbu North and a liarbird. Picture in the notes as usual, if you want to go and have a look at that spoon. I have a feeling. This is an area that was ravaged by bushfires not too long ago. Yes. And I have a feeling there was a famous. Coala. Sam the koala.

Sam the koala. You're right. It was the famous video and image of a burnt koala being given a bottle of water by a firefighter and drinking from the bottle. And it became this iconic image. And that happened in Mubu North. And I did a bit of research about Sam the koala afterwards. And Sam the koala, which was a lady koala, sadly died like that same year because she had all these

other health issues. So they had to euthanise her. Although she was saved from her burns. she was euthanized in that same year. 2009, maybe, anyway. And she was taxidermied and is in the Victorian Museum or a Melbourne Museum. And I can't decide if I think that's nice or a little bit weird. But you can still go and see the koala in a museum.

I tell you, you've got to share the photo, though, because it's the most beautiful photo. It's a wonderful photo of, you know, a fireman stopping and caring for a little piece of nature there. It's just, just marvelous, yeah. The koala's so dear to our hearts in Australia. They are lovely. But I think the photo does the work. I don't think we needed the taxidermid Sam in the museum. That's not great, yeah.

Yeah, that's a bit much. They, you know, let it go. Let Sam rest in peace, I say, yeah. My idea for a podcast, man, is called The American Way. Right. And this is a podcast where you talk about the way things are done in America versus everywhere else in the world. And there are various things you could do here,

but the reason I came up with it was my feelings about American toilets. Right, right. The American wave toilets. I still get freaked out using toilets in America. You know how they have these really big bowls with a really high surface area of water? And they're really shallow. And I just find it really weird going to the toilet in American toilets. And it's the only place in the world I know with toilets like that.

Australia, England, all the other places, Europe have what I consider to be normal toilets, which are quite deep. They've got quite a low surface area of water, quite a small landing pad, I guess you would call it. But Americans have these confrontingly big ones. I find them strange to use, but I also find them very confronting afterwards because I feel like what you've done in the toilet, is suddenly very close to you and very spread out and big and a lot more like you're you're a lot more confronted by what you've done in the toilet in an American toilet whereas in an Australian

toilet or an English toilet it's far away it's in a small little area you don't really get much of a look at it and you flush it away you don't have to think about it again but in America you got to have a you got to have a good look I don't like that I don't like it I don't like American toilets I've done a lot of research into why they're different and I can answer questions about that yeah but anyway that's my idea for a podcast. It's looking at the way things are in America, how they're different to other places in the world, because I think the American way is a good title as well. Okay, okay, okay. So we'll come to the broader idea at a minute, and I would like to ask a question about why the water level is different

in America. But I think I want to make a point here that I think one of the reasons we find at confronting, because I agree with you is because in Australia, if the water level gets that high, something's gone wrong, right? There's a blockage. Yes. Yes, you're right. It probably brings back some trauma too. Yeah. If the water surface area gets that big, it means the toilet has way overfilled and is just about to flood your house. That's right. That's right. So it's like, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness. Yep, something's blocked and it's all going to be my fault and it's going to flow out everywhere. Quick, cut the water off before it overfills. Yeah, you're right. It is, yeah, because there's nothing more anxiety inducing than an Australian or an English toilet filling, filling, filling, filling, filling. And you're like, oh my God, it's supposed to stop by now. Why is it still filling? my God, something really bad's about to happen. And all American toilets just look like that by default. I'm trying to think of a film where there's a moment where you're stuck in water. You know what I mean?

And the water's just rising, rising, rising, rising up to the... Titanic, the Abyss. Yeah. That's what it feels like. It's like, it's still coming. It's still coming. Oh, my goodness. Yeah.

So let me point out, first of all, when I was in the Netherlands, the Netherlands kind of don't have water. It's like it falls like it's just... It's the opposite, right? even less than Australia. There's like a little shelf and then the water comes later on. And that's pretty freaky too. Yes, that's hard.

Yeah, I'm familiar with those toilets too. Yeah, there's no water and then it still gets washed away afterwards. Yeah, that's like an American toilet but without the water. Yeah, that's right. That's like the opposite problem. It's like, oh, no, we're out of water and I shouldn't have used the toilet because the plumber's working and now it's going to have to sit there. I forgot about like those shelf toilets there also.

Yeah, that's a whole other genre. And then, of course, you've got a lot of the toilets in Asia, which are just like the squat toilets. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So why do they have higher water level? Why do they design differently? Is it they plumbing? There's a few things going on there.

One is, because American bathrooms are generally bigger, they're able to have more luxurious, comfortable toilets so they can have this greater area. There's a bit to do with plumbing and flushing methods. They can have different flushing methods, and that comes into it. You can read a whole lot about this on the internet. I'm not going to go too deep.

I make my American Way podcast. Right. But another one is, of course, having all that water there does reduce, let's just say it, it reduces skid marks because more of your waste is landing on water rather than hitting actual porcelain. Yeah, okay, sure, yeah. Yeah, so there's an argument to say it's more hygienic or it keeps it clean. Yes, yeah, okay.

And less smell because more of the waste is immediately covered by water. Right. Yep. But I do think they use more water when they flush, which is a downside. Oh, okay, sure. And they also have this other problem called Poseidon's Kiss, which is their propensity for there to be splashback. And when you make a splash, it splashes back up and you get hit by the water. Poseidon's Kiss.

That's just like, yeah, that's terrifying. Like that. Yeah. Yeah. Like I'll happily be camping and I'll go to the toilet out in nature, like amongst the sand dunes and then go. for a swim. Very comfortable with that, but I'm not comfortable with a tiny bit of splash in the toilet. No. As soon as I've produced any waste, I want everything to be as far away as possible as quickly as possible and nothing to come back. And American toilets don't allow me to get

it far enough away and the Poseidon's kiss is an ever-present danger. There's obviously something beautiful and evolutionary about that, isn't there? Like the way in which some animals quickly cover dust over their remains. There's obviously, you know, for hygienic reasons, you know, you need to get away from the waste immediately. Yes. Yes. So I'm not saying you're weird. I'm just saying you're living into your natural inclinations of your species, yeah.

I am a biological being. I'm a product of evolution. Some other things we could feature on the American way would be power plugs, power sockets. Could talk a lot about how bad American power sockets are. How big they are. No, no, they're not that big. I always think they're surprisingly small, and they have just those two little slots. And I always find they fall out of the wall.

Like, I find very often, when I plug things into American power sockets, they just fall out of the wall. No, I'm getting mixed up. It's in England, actually, that they have those big, chunky three-pronged ones, isn't it? Yeah, and they're brilliant. They're the best power sockets in the world. I could talk for a long time about those two. But that's for another episode.

But I'm not always down on America. Things I like about America. Yeah, yellow school buses. Yes. Nice, yes. I also like the sound that their emergency vehicles make, like ambulances and police. I feel like I'm living in a movie whenever I walk down the streets of New York and I hear a siren. As opposed to like English ones and Australian ones, which can be a bit Mickey Mouse.

There's something about their stationery. It's not just their school buses, but they have those yellow pencils and those yellow pad paper pads. There's something about American stationary that sort of feels... A lot of this shows that we are products of watching a lot of American culture, you know, in movies and TV. But anyway, the American way. They broadcast the American way. Yeah, yeah. Is there anything American?

I mean, another obvious one is tipping. And of course, you know, you could talk for a long time about tipping culture. But one thing that I used to always find really interesting about tipping culture and America. And I don't, I haven't really been subjected to it as much anymore. because I don't go out to bars and drinking and partying as much as when I was a younger man. But I always loved the culture of going to the bar to order drinks and putting money down on the bar like as a tip to start to even get the attention of the bartender. And if you splashed out and put more down, you got better attention.

I always found that like a little interesting little piece of culture. Yeah, yeah. I haven't done it for a while. One of the big unique things about the American way, of course, is the phenomena of Thanksgiving. What do you think about that idea, having a day. set aside in the year where you sort of just give thanks for everything. I think it's nice. I just think they've missed a trick by putting it so close to Christmas.

Yeah. It becomes the holiday season, doesn't it, of that? Yeah. Those two get paired together. It just feels like they just have two Christmases every year. It feels like Christmas isn't as big a deal, though, is it? Like people, because it's not the start of the holidays like it is in Australia. I know that's just a Northern Hemisphere thing.

But Christmas for us was like the first big celebration. before our big summer holidays, which is a whole different thing for them. And of course, for you. Well, I mean, Christmas is a big deal in the UK, and it's the same thing. It's just not part of a big start of the school holidays. But I do think, I think part of the reason maybe Christmas is pretty big in America, to be fair, but maybe part of it is because they've had Thanksgiving so recently. And they're all kind of.

They've had a lot of turkey. That's a lot of turkey in that end of the year. They've seen their family and they've done all that. I don't know why they celebrate Thanksgiving when they do. You know, I'm sure there's a reason for the date. Hang on. I should know that. I'm sure it's to do with like the pilgrims and stuff, isn't it?

Yeah, the boat when it arrived and all that. Plymouth and stuff. Anyway. Anyway, I think the problem with Thanksgiving is the time. But anyway, we have to live with that, don't we? The American way. Interesting. And would you talk to Americans?

Would you get them to explain their history? Would you have an expert in? Or would you just pontificate yourself? I haven't thought that. far ahead, but yeah, everything's on the table. You're right. Having Americans on would be funny. Pontificating would be funny. You can go serious and be all historical. You can just be funny and wingy and talk about toilets. Or you could get a plumber on and be serious about toilets. I haven't thought that far ahead. I really just wanted to talk about American toilets. And the American way

was just my excuse. Right. Okay. So you're not necessarily getting into the Constitution and the separation of church and state and those sorts of things. You're more about the toilets. I'm not too worried about that. I'm not too, I'm not too worried about geopolitics and all that stuff. I just want to talk about skid marks on porcelain. Can I say the Americans, the American way, they gave us hot dogs, right? But then when you go and have their hot dogs. Hang on, I want to stand and salute for that. Thank you, my American friends for hot dogs. Although I do feel their hot dogs are smaller than I, than we have it anyway. They're too small. So that's, um, that, um, that, That's interesting.

The American way is not to have things smaller, man. The American way is to have them bigger. Exactly. And yet, their hot dogs are small. I don't know. Go figure. Maybe because you can have many. That's what I love in New York.

You can eat a hot dog while you walk, and by the time you get to the next corner, you can buy another hot dog. Yeah, buy another one. They're designed to last the walking time of one block. I don't know about the American way, but the unmade podcast way is to finish the episode and retire to the request room where we talk some more and answer questions and do dares and challenges and all sorts of stuff from our Patreon supporters. Shall we go and do that? We shall. We shall. We shall indeed. It's not the Wesley suite this week. This week it's the Benji suite, isn't it? We want some Benjys. We're already, we're overflowing with Wesley's over in

the request room. We want some Benjys. To be honest, we want everyone. Benjys, that's what they call. What are Benjies in America? Is that $100 bills that have got Benjays? Benjamin Franklin on them? I've not heard that term before. Yeah, I think you call them Benjys. You know, you're out in the town flipping a few Benjys. There you go. Some green.